


Sand and Cameras

by GingerBurst



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo 2019, One Shot, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24346105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerBurst/pseuds/GingerBurst
Summary: A game of volleyball and a new camera bring about some small but important facts about life. It really is the simple things that matter the most.
Relationships: Atem/Mutou Yuugi, Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Sand and Cameras

Prompt: “They say a picture is worth a thousand words but you knew the one you’d just taken was worth a million.”

“I got it, I got it!”  
Jounouchi did not 'got it'. The volleyball sailed straight passed his clasped hands and slammed into the sand near his feet, kicking up a small wave up at his knees. Yelling his frustration at the sky, the blonde quickly swiped the ball from the ground to toss it at Honda behind him. It was their serve now.  
“Sorry!” Anzu grinned at him from the other side of the net and roughly pushed back her hair from her face. “I didn’t mean to kick sand at you!”  
“Man it is not fair that you’ve got the best legs of all ‘uv us. How can you even jump like that?!”  
“Hard work,” she tossed, moving back to her spot at the net. Jounouchi just groaned, and Honda served. “And I- Hardly have the best legs!”

Content to stay out of the evil day ball of sun, Yugi and Ryou sprawled out on the largest blanket the Englishman had brought and set under a set of umbrellas - courtesy of Honda and Anzu each. Wanting to avoid being a lobster as much as possible while still enjoying the outdoors, the shortest of the group tossed the sunscreen tube he’d just emptied back into his bag and proceeded to slather it everywhere that was bare.  
“I think you’re too scrappy to jump those kinds of heights, Jou,” Ryou piped up from over his water bottle, smiling gently. “You’re better at climbing.”  
“Anzu does use her legs as her job, Jou. You can’t argue with the results.” Honda was well used to this, and just hung back in his back spot of their makeshift court.  
“See? Someone appreciates my hard work!” she teased. “Maybe if you took up some dance lessons-”  
“Nope! No way!” Jou earned himself a ball to the back of the head. He whirled around to glare at a passive Honda. “What the hell was that for!?”

“So,” Ryou turned his attention from the game to Yugi, “You mentioned earlier you got a new camera?”  
“Yeah, the one I had gotten from my mom finally needed replaced. The flash hadn’t been working for a while, and I needed the excuse to go buy a new one.” Yugi wiped the remaining sunscreen on the towel draped over his bag, cleaning his hands off before pulling the new camera out of the big pocket. “Plus, it’s nice to have one that doesn’t require me buying reels every time I need them.”  
“Oh!” Ryou leaned closer once he saw the new digital camera. “That’s a nice one! Did your salary cover that?”  
“Kind of, it was partly a splurge buy and partly a birthday gift. Figured at twenty-two I needed something more modern.” Sheepishly grinning at him, Yugi handed over the camera for Ryou to get a better look at. The Brit was eager to get his hands on it, needing to use older tech at his current workplace. “It’s been nice to take it on business trips and snap some photos of the places we visit. This one just saves so much room in my bag.”  
“I’d imagine it would.” Ryou turned the camera over, clicking through settings and snapping a few dummy photos. “Are there any on here?”  
“Nope. I take them off pretty quickly to make sure there’s space, and I haven’t been able to take this one on any trips yet. We’re planning on going up to Hokkaido for a week, so I’m going to stress test it then.”  
“Are you going skiing?”  
“Definitely not.” He took back the camera when it was handed to him, laughing. “I can’t skii for my life, and Atem hates bundling up for the snow as it is. He has expressed interest in winter activities, but until one really strikes his fancy he’s willing to not do anything so long as he doesn’t have to wear four layers of thermals.”  
“Why am I not surprised?” Smirking, Ryou looked back out to the makeshift volleyball game their other four friends were doing. Jou was flopped in the sand, shaking his hand at the sky while a sheepish Atem was trying not to laugh. “Hey! Why don’t we stress test it now? You brought it to take pictures anyway, let’s try it out!”  
“Sure why not? After the game?”  
“Oh I don’t think that’ll take long.” Ryou’s grin was downright condescending with amusement. “Jou should know by now being Atem’s opponent means a loss, and with Anzu as a designated striker there’s no way he and Honda could actually outpace them.”  
“Oh come on, they have a chance. They’ve got the stamina to outlast them-” Another ball struck the ground, this time whizzing past Honda’s head. It was ‘out of bounds’ but the sheer wide eyed panic on his face meant he had come this close to being whacked in the face.  
“Crap,” Honda muttered. “Since when could you strike like that man!?”  
“Um, I’m not sure?” This time the Egyptian had full rights to look sheepish, since he’d just barely made it to the net in time. “I wasn’t exactly aiming back there though…”  
“Ugh,” Jou sagged. “How’d we put both strikers on the same team?”  
“Quit your complaining,” Anzu tossed at him, still grinning. “Just ‘cause he’s the shortest doesn’t mean he can’t spike.”  
“On a court! Sand is a whole different ball game!”  
“I grew up with sand,” came the amused retort, crossing his arms. This game was probably a lost cause at this point anyway. “Just because I had stone floors doesn’t mean I didn’t ever see the sand.”  
“If you guys are interested,” Yugi stood, diffusing whatever mess this could turn into, “How about a group photo?”

He held the camera up for all to see, and the arguments about the game were over. Jounouchi and Anzu immediately agreed to the idea, though Jou was slightly salty about not getting his ‘underdog comeback’ or something. Honda just ruffled his hair with a huff, ball under the other arm. Ryou and Yugi stacked the two coolers they’d brought and a few of the food containers to get a good height. Suddenly a camera stand sounded like a good idea, and was put on some offhand mental list. Meanwhile, the camera had been pilfered by someone, and there were selfie snapshots abound. One by two by four, various shots all ended up on the camera. Plenty were deleted, especially any of the blurry ones. And _none_ of the ones of Jounouchi being an idiot, naturally. Anzu’s were agreed as the best, since she favored the more natural shots instead of posed shots. Of course there were both, can’t have a camera party without both. By the time they’d all wrestled into an actual group that wasn’t tossing the device back and forth like a currency, they had figured out the camera’s shutter and lighting settings, and discovered there was a timer setting. 

The camera was given back to Yugi to set up properly, while Ryou figured the best arrangements for everyone. Naturally, tall in back short in front was the easiest, but they had set the camera to take multiple shots - a pleasant surprise - and they fell into the most random of assortments once the first few had gone off. After a minute of laughter and quick paced chaos (somehow Honda had ended up in everyones arms off the ground) the camera beeped to indicate it had reached the end of the setting (and he was promptly set back down). Yugi jogged over to the camera, clicking through to the gallery menu to double check their pictures actually came out right. They had a bad track record with photo booths, so he prayed at least a few were right. Thumb tapping the arrow key to the newest set, they all mostly looked okay. Quite a few were blurry from Honda and Jounouchi’s ‘roughhousing’, but a few were quite clear. Way better than the old film one. 

He flicked another few photos and stopped. The picture was clear, free of human blurring and the sun wasn’t reflecting off Anzu’s sunglasses this time. It was, all things considered, a completely normal photo with them all in the pose they had improvised suddenly. All of them were there, clear as day. That wasn’t it, though. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but he would have shelled out _millions_ for this one. He’d have probably killed for a photo like this, in the years before. Cause there in the center holding onto one another as they tried to figure out what in the hell Jou was doing while grinning like idiots, was both Yugi and Atem. Separate, visible, physical. 

There had been a few photos over the past few years where his own image just felt off, and only someone who knew could pinpoint what and why. He perhaps could have been content with those, given time, and perhaps become disappointed if those were the only details he could remember later in life. But there he was, in the flesh and full detail down to the actual real world differences between them.  
“Did they come out alright?” his familiar baritone broke the awe that had fallen over him, and he looked up to meet his partners curious eyes.  
“Yeah, most of them,” he chuckled. “Most are a bit blurry but.” Yugi turned the camera around to show him, relished in watching his darker ‘twin’ lean in to see the screen better and light up at the photo.   
“Its fantastic! How soon can we get these pictures printed?”  
“With this kind of camera, we can do it ourselves. But if we want a good quality photo we’ll have to take it to the store.”  
“Could we frame one? It could go up on the shelf?”  
“Sounds great. You can choose where it goes. You’ve got a better eye than me.” Pushing back the urge to roll his eyes at the near immediate rejection of that idea, Yugi looked him over again for the first time since waking up that morning. Dropping the camera onto his towel, he wrapped an arm through his darker counterparts'. A part of him relished in the warmth in his chest. “We can worry about that later. Who’s up for ice cream?” Jou’s immediate attention turned to him with a loud “Hell yes!” and disturbing a handful of nearby beach goers in range.  
“There’s a place up near the boardwalk. If everyone’s cool leaving our stuff here, we could go up and come back?” Anzu suggested, recalling a small place they’d passed on the way and served non-dairy.  
“Sounds good to me.” Taking his partners hand, Yugi looked to him to lead the way.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still learning the formatting and what I prefer, bear with me.  
> While I will almost always write the Japanese names and context, I grew up on hearing Joey's speech. So despite Honda having the gang accent in the original, Jounouchi gets to suffer.
> 
> There's plenty of work that could be done to this piece, including fleshing out non-dialog (I've overworked my dialog stat skill, to the detriment of the rest) but I just wanted to get it up and out there. This has sat for a while so I'm not getting back to it probably. I have bigger works to focus on. If an update does happen, I'll of course mark it as such.
> 
> I did the same thing in 2019 as I did in 2017, by mashing NaNoWriMo with daily prompts - cause life and short attention spans keep me super busy.
> 
> Critique welcomed and encouraged!


End file.
